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City to use $250,000 community-compact grant to extend municipal fiber to 15 sites
Summary
Springfield won a $250,000 Community-Compact grant to deploy city-owned fiber to 15 municipal sites to support public safety, municipal telecom and internal operations; staff said the funds are restricted to municipal uses and are the first such IT-focused Community-Compact award for the city.
The Springfield Finance Committee accepted a $250,000 Community-Compact grant June 2 to deploy city-owned fiber optic cabling to 15 municipal sites across the city.
City IT and finance staff said the grant will fund municipal fiber deployments prioritized for public safety locations and larger occupancy buildings, with remaining sites to be completed in later phases. The grant funding is strictly for municipal purposes—telecommunications, public-safety data and municipal IT systems—and is not a general-purpose broadband deployment grant for residents, staff said.
Information-technology staff described the award as unusual for the department and noted it will improve municipal connectivity and reduce future costs compared with purchasing private lines. The city said it will not apply for another Community-Compact grant for this program until the next eligible cycle (the program allows applications every other year).
Staff said the grant will help complete lower-priority municipal sites after higher-priority public-safety connections have been made; they expect to issue bids later this summer to continue construction work.
The committee approved acceptance of the grant and forwarding the matter to the full council for routine acceptance and appropriation as required.
